Name: What We Leave Behind
Start: 2026-05-19T19:30:00
End: 2026-05-19T21:30:00
Location: Old Bell Inn

Towering above West Lothian, Scotland's shale bings are relics of a lost oil industry — and something stranger and more alive than that. Drawing on archival footage and fieldwork, this talk challenges us to see industrial waste not as an ending, but as a landscape with its own history, ecology and future.

A visual construction history of the West Lothian Shale Bings

Felix Birch (Geotechnical Engineer at Network Rail)

Norman Villeroux (Musician & Teaching Fellow in Landscape Architecture (University of Edinburgh))

The West Lothian Bings are slag heaps formed from waste shale produced during Scotland’s Industrial Revolution, at a time when it led global oil production. They stand as a testimony to capitalist ruination yet offer stories of renewal and unlikely encounters. Using archival footage and fieldwork material, Felix Birch and Norman Villeroux will take part in a joint discussion which proposes to oppose ideological narratives positioning waste as objects without history, instead highlighting bings as structures with their own construction history and ongoing socio-ecological significance.

[{"lat":55.9348877,"lon":-3.1790218,"title":"Old Bell Inn","html":"<div class=\"location-tooltip\">\n    <h6>Events at Old Bell Inn<\/h6>\n\n    <address class=\"mb-1\"> 233-235 Causewayside, Edinburgh, EH9 1PH<\/address>\n\n    <div class=\"mb-3\">\n        <a href=\"https:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?daddr=+233-235+Causewayside%2C+Edinburgh%2C+EH9+1PH\" target=\"_blank\">\n            Get directions <i class=\"fa fa-external-link\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/i>\n        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n    <ul class=\"lt-events\">\n        \n        <li>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/pintofscience.co.uk\/event\/the-land-beneath-our-feet\">\n                <span class=\"lt-event-name\">The Land Beneath Our Feet <\/span>\n                <span class=\"lt-event-date\">(18 May 2026)<\/span>\n            <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n        \n        <li>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/pintofscience.co.uk\/event\/what-we-leave-behind\">\n                <span class=\"lt-event-name\">What We Leave Behind<\/span>\n                <span class=\"lt-event-date\">(19 May 2026)<\/span>\n            <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n        \n        <li>\n            <a href=\"https:\/\/pintofscience.co.uk\/event\/data-for-a-fairer-future\">\n                <span class=\"lt-event-name\">Data for a Fairer Future<\/span>\n                <span class=\"lt-event-date\">(20 May 2026)<\/span>\n            <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n        \n    <\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","zoom":15,"icon":"https:\/\/pintofscience.co.uk\/assets\/Topics\/society-map__ScaleWidthWzMwXQ.png"}]

Other Edinburgh events

Other Old Bell Inn events

20 May

Edinburgh

Data for a Fairer Future

18 May

Edinburgh

Sold Out!

The Land Beneath Our Feet